


And Now, the Final Curtain

by SirAranIsWriting



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 14:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15121763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirAranIsWriting/pseuds/SirAranIsWriting
Summary: Her life had been boorish, crude, and drab. In her final moments, he could give her meaning. He could make her beautiful.(An interpretation of the lost interaction)





	And Now, the Final Curtain

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Beauty in Death](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5903245) by [UnholyPinecone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnholyPinecone/pseuds/UnholyPinecone). 



> In the lead up to Jhin's reveal, four characters were depicted with artistically "beautiful" deaths. Each was revealed to be the theoretical work of Jhin, and each was less important than the last: Zed, the man who helped put him away; Sona, the artist he was jealous of; Garen, whose joint death with Katarina would be a classic tragedy; and Vi, whose interaction was cut, and based on glib comments from the creators, would've amounted to calling her fighting style gauche. On the one hand, I’m kinda glad she and Cait got to dodge that (literal) bullet. On the other, though, still kinda miffed that the whole thing went no where. So...
> 
> Also, looking up other Jhin works to make sure I wasn't treading on any other titles, turns out I wasn't the first one to make the connection between Jhin and Kindred. Shout out to UnholyPinecone for inspiring their particular writing style.

Jhin spun his gun four times around his finger, before leveling it at Vi's head, a cold, satisfied smile hidden behind his mask. “You almost missed your mark. Luckily, we can still save this performance.”

 

Vi spat, blood staining her teeth, as she pushed herself up on her hands, glaring up at Jhin, a defiant, smirking scowl on her lips. Her legs had gone numb; something other than shrapnel in that freaky flower bomb made it difficult to move. “Shit... Ionian? What's an Ionian serial killer doing in Piltover?”

 

Jhin demonstrated his gun's empty barrel with a series of clicks from the hammer, before spinning it again. “Some Noxians were sent to Piltover on some sort of assignment. My employers decided to send me on a project of my own.”

 

“Yeesh, Ionia in the business of sending assassins, now?” Vi chuckled, shaking her head. “Actually, never mind. This makes _way_ more sense than trying to send one of their ninjas here.”

 

“Yes, because your bulky machine enhanced punching is _decades_ ahead of their martial arts.”

 

“And yet, here you are, letting your Noxians get into protection and dealing with Piltys. Gotta say, for an assassin, you're kinda spacey.”

 

“A simple execution of aimless ambassadors would've been...dry. Dreary. Dull. But _you..._ The moment I saw you, I knew _you_ could give me a performance they never could.”

 

“Ah, shucks, I'm flattered. How's about you hold still until I can feel my legs again, and I'll play you a little chin music?”

 

A cold, hollow chuckle came from behind Jhin's mask, which caused Vi to wince and hiss through clenched teeth, as he started reloading. One shot would suffice, but it felt wrong not to reload to four.

 

“You should be grateful; in death, I shall make you more beautiful than your entire life could ever have been.”

 

“That little bomb of your's nearly blew my legs off. Explain to me how blown out stumps would've been _beautiful_.”

 

“A gutter rat, born in the vats of Zaun, clawing up to the underbelly of the fabled City of Progress. Then finding new purpose, a criminal turned defender of justice...by jumping into fight after fight, barbarically punching and slapping other gutter rats.”

 

“And wrasslin. I do a lot of wrasslin, too, y'know.”

 

“Quite. But here. The first casualty of a new crime wave that rocks Piltover to its core...chasing a new mastermind into the bowels of the city, in death leaving a note to the rest of the force...” His eyes closed, leaving his mask completely void of any humanity, as he took in a deep breath, exhaling as though he tasted the finest liquor. “Magnificent! One couldn't pen the finer ending to a first act!”

 

“The rest of...” Vi's eyes went wide, then narrowed. Her arms shook, but she barely kept herself from collapsing as she kept herself up, glaring up at Jhin. “Cait...Cait! What the _fuck_ do you have planned for--”

 

“I had considered the sheriff for my show,” Jhin admitted, waving his gun idly through the air as he reminisced. “Her death would've devastated the city...but it would be too soon. Too fast. Too...anticlimactic, to kill the tragic heroine in the first act. Her foul mouthed, boisterous, comic relief partner, _that's_ a death that marks a change in the narrative.

 

“Besides, your reaction, cradling her dead body, howling broken hearted...it's too similar to your inelegant shouting when you fight. But _her_ reaction... The emotional walls crumbling down, revealing her sure _anguish_ , all those feelings she never let herself have before her work...” Another sniff, another shuddering exhale. “I nearly weep as I pen the second act...”

 

Struggling to slide up onto her knee, then onto her toes, Vi pushed herself up, and up, trying to rise to her feet. “I will take that pen and shove it so far down your throat, _I'll autograph your gu_ —ugh!” Her legs gave out. Vi collapsed, falling on her face, arms splayed out on the floor, shattered debris around her.

 

With a dismissive chuckle, Jhin looked about the room; a basement was a rotten place to have to set the scene, only barely saved by it being the basement of a gallery. But the traps he set, the explosives that went off, the holes in the building they made, it all allowed sunlight, radiant sunlight reflecting off the overly polished buildings of Piltover, to shine through. One even shined down on the two of them, like a natural spotlight.

 

And there, up on the ledge, looking into the hole in the floor Vi fell through, was the audience Jhin had always hoped was watching. It was a faint, ghostly visage, a humanoid shape of snow white smoke, a tail of black smoke circling around it.

 

“Look. The Kindred have come to close out the curtain on us,” Jhin said with utter satisfaction in his tone. “Do try and die with dignity; a messy death would be an utter tonal shift.”

 

Vi lifted her head, then followed Jhin's look. “The Kindr..what the hell are you talking about?”

 

“Do you not--” Jhin stopped. He looked between Vi and Kindred. Did she really not see them? The angle she was resting at, the sun wasn't in her eyes. If anything, they were in his, and _he_ could still see... But if the Kindred appeared before those whose time had come, and she couldn't see them, then--

 

He whipped around in a panic, eyes darting this way and that, scanning the buildings his traps had exposed. His hands fumbled with his gun, snapping the stock of his rifle into place, raising Whisper in its full glory to get the first shot. Sniper nest, sniper nest, where could she be set--

 

_CRACK!_

 

The rifle flew out of his hands; Jhin flew back a foot, his eyes wide and red. He hit the ground next to Vi with a heavy thud, his mask flying off from impact, leaving him in his black hood, still concealing his face. His hands flew up to his throat, gripping the bullet hole, where blood was gushing out, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. A futile gesture.

 

“Heh...well, god damn...took the freakin' kill shot... Nice shootin', Cupcake.” And with that, Vi allowed herself to pass out.

 

As Jhin writhed and tried to control his breathing, he could already hear it, hear the sheriff's footsteps leave her hiding hole, run out that neighbouring complex, into the gallery, all the way here to collect her partner...and his corpse.

 

He couldn't believe how wrong he was... Here, he thought he was penning a beautifully tragic ending to the opening act, when, it seemed he would be the climactic death before the falling action of a rote third.

 

Before Caitlyn could even leave the first building, the Kindred hopped down from the floor above, almost floating, gracefully, before landing delicately next to him. Jhin let his arms slip from around his throat, flat on the ground.

 

 _ **“No fun...”**_ Wolf snarled. _**“He can barely run.”**_

 

 _“He is not your's to take. I am sorry, Dear Wolf,”_ Lamb sighed.

 

 _ **“He tried to deny his death!”**_ Wolf snapped his jaws close to Jhin's face. _**“Fight back, claw at life, deny his death! Let me crunch his bones, at least!”**_

 

 _“All are startled in the face of their end,”_ Lamb explained. _“To cling to life is natural...as is to accept one's death, afterwards.”_

 

Jhin chuckled, a burbling, choked sound, as his mouth and his lungs filled with blood. He lifted his left hand, twitching his index finger, mimicking the firing of his gun.

 

_**“He still fights!”** _

 

_“...Wolf. His weapon. Please give it to him.”_

 

Snarling and huffing in frustration, the Wolf floated over to Whisper, lying prone and helpless where Jhin once stood. Closing his jaws around the rifle, he floated back to Jhin, and dropped it carelessly on his body, the gun collapsed a bit from Wolf's bite.

 

With the last of his strength, Jhin lifted his hands to grab hold of the gun. Well...if he were to die, now, if this was to be his time...this was a better death than he could've expected to get, probably.

 

 _“He accepts his time,”_ Lamb said in judgment. She lifted her bow. _“So gracefully, he goes.”_

 

As his vision blurred, his eyes began to close for the last time, Jhin could see Lamb aiming at him, a white arrow pointed at his throat. She was going to shoot him directly where Caitlyn had shot him...the cleanest double tap one could ever see.

 

She was a beautiful shot...


End file.
